About Me

Melissa White

Hello, and thanks for visiting my blog! My name is Melissa, and I love being a teacher. This is my 12th year of classroom teaching, both in regular and special education. Before that, I worked for more than a decade with a non-profit children's charity in Cleveland's inner city.

In my spare time (hmmmm?), I teach graduate and undergraduate education courses in reading and special education. I love collaborating and sharing with other teachers, and this blog helps me to do a little bit more.

My passions in teaching include integrating technology, using hands-on activities in math and science, and differentiating instruction for students with various needs. I also have an extensive background in working with students with autism and emotional disturbance, and teach workshops to parents of children with these needs.

Last, but best, I am mom to one terrific daughter! She makes each day brighter, and is the inspiration for what I do each day!

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Woohooooooo!
State testing wrapped up this week! Kiddos and teachers everywhere have lots to be
proud of! J Big….sigh….of….relief!

We have a little more than a month to go on our
campus, and I’m looking forward to making those last days of school really
count! One thing’s for sure, I want
to keep my students reading, reading, reading through the rest of the school year
and well into the summer. If you’re
looking for fun ways to do this too, I’ve got a GREAT tool for you: Trading
Card Creator!

This fun FREE online tool comes from
ReadWriteThink.org, the website of the International Reading Association. It lets kids create a virtual trading card
where they describe a character’s feelings, actions, and more—all based on the
text they’re reading. Students can
upload images, save and even print their double-sided trading cards for
sharing. What a great way to have kiddos
talk about the books they love and spread their excitement!

You can access the card creator here, or there’s even a FREE iPad app. Both the app and website are excellent!

This web tool is really versatile, so you can
even have kids create trading cards of events, story settings, abstract concepts of more. Lots to explore with the Trading Card
Creator, and this is just ONE of the super activities on
ReadWriteThink.org.

My kids LOVE making these, and have a blast
trading them! What a fun way to keep that
learning going through the last days of school!

I’m dabbling here and there with some other great
end-of-year activities to keep the kids engaged and learning—I’ll be blogging
about those later this week!